A.C. Ping's Blog, page 5

Let Go of Control

"Time is a storm in which we are all lost"
William Carlos Williams

Act With Intention, Strengthen Your Will, Hold Space - Let Go Of Control...

Yes this is 'Take a deep breath time'...
Fixed thinking holds us in the repetitive recreation of past patterns. We are hardwired to look for patterns and our left brain desperately tries to make sense of the World so we can feel safe and comfortable.

Reflect back to the notion of 'being' and the 3 worlds in which we exist - the Past, the Present and the Future. Left brain seeks certainty and safety - Left brain is always trying to 'work it all out' - Left brain is rational, logical and reasonable - Left brain sticks you firmly in the Past/Present step by step reactive continuous improvement way of life.

Reason is the last refuge of the rational backward looking mind.

 

 

To create the unknown future is to step into the mystery. Let go of fear, embrace courage and choose to believe in something for which there is no evidence.

Buying into fear leads us to control and the task of trying to rationally create a future where we get what we want. But by definition it is limited to what already is - maybe just in a different form - yes maybe like reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic - it might look better but it's still going to sink!

Imagine if we tried to create the perfect sunset?

Control will all ultimately lead to frustration because our deepest inner nature is that we are growth seeking beings - we want to expand. Expansion means stepping into the mystery, letting go of control and allowing things to grow. The mystery of life excites us.

Act With Intention, Strengthen Your Will, Hold Space, Let Go of Control, Release and Surrender the outcome to spirit...

Become Comfortable in Uncertainty.

So, where do you start with this?

Vision - what do I want?
Action - with clear intention - pure of heart based on inner truth having totally released the outcome.

That means - no "If you don't .... then I will" threats to get what you want.
No - withholding of emotions and/or affections (yes you could read SEX!) to get what you want.
No - dare I say it? - GUILT TRIPS - to get what you want.
No - whining and complaining - to get what you want.

YES to truth - "When you ... I FEEL ..."
YES to acceptance of what you get as PERFECTION based on TRUTH.
YES to FREEDOM not control.

Are you brave enough to do this?

In peace and love always.

Hold Your Space

"If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win, but think you can't,
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost.
For out of the World we find,
Success begins with a fellows' will -
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger man or the faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!"
Walter B. Wintle

This post follows on from the last two 'Act With Intention' and 'Strengthen Your Will' and it deals with the key skill of being able to 'Hold Space'.

So, let me first explain what I mean by 'Holding Space'. In the Quantum world we are all linked together by the Quantum Field that flows all around us and through us all the time. At all times we have an opportunity to both influence the field and to be influenced by the field. That is, we can be both proactive and reactive. We can be influenced by others and we can influence others.

How do we do this? How can we work with the field?

Reflect back to the notion of 'being' and the 3 worlds in which we exist - the Past, the Present and the Future.
 

As I discussed in the last post most of us are living a reactive life, perpetually going around the Past/Present loop. As we play out past behavioural patterns we effectively relinquish our opportunity to consciously create what we want.

To create something completely new we need to be in the Future/Present loop and it is our WILL that holds us in this loop. That is - regardless of the evidence available we choose to hold ourselves in this loop.

Holding Space is about using our WILL to hold space around a particular future possibility.

A client shared a fantastic example with me recently.

He was at a concert and about half way through the concert a couple of people behind him started making a racket and being disruptive. He turned around and confronted them and simply asked them to stop. They turned out to be two rather big fellows and his initial reaction was 'Oh shit what have I done I'm about to get the crap beaten out of me'.

But despite their initial aggressive reaction he resisted the temptation to buy into his fear and instead held space around the possibility that they were all there to enjoy the concert and have a good time.

As they threatened he simply smiled and said 'Come on guys we're all here to have a good time, let's enjoy the concert'. They relaxed, smiled back, apologised and they all enjoyed the rest of the show.

Set Intention, Strengthen Your Will, Hold Your Space.

Because the Quantum Field is not affected by time or space you can hold space for other people and for remote possibilities.

Holding Space for other people means holding energy for them around a high possibility or good way of being. A friend recently separated from his partner. Their 7 year old son was having trouble adjusting to the split and didn't want to go with his Mother.

A typical reaction in this situation would be to REACT to events and to worry about the well being of the child - to fear the worst.

That's would be holding space around a poor outcome. The alternative is to be PROACTIVE and to ask 'What's the highest possibility?' - maybe that the Mother and son get to have a heart to heart and sort things out and the child's character is strengthened by the experience.

The Father then could hold space around that outcome - focussing instead on the Mother's good qualities and the strength of character of his son. His energy then would be directed at helping rather than hindering the situation.

Do you see the difference?

To hold space around a remote possibility would mean to be clear about EXACTLY what it is you want and how it would FEEL to have it come to reality.

Holding Space then means to use your WILL to envisage the situation and then give THANKS even though it has not happened yet. In other words don't WAIT for EVIDENCE!!

Decide what you want and resonate with that possibility.

You can train yourself in this by sitting in a circle of honour http://www.acping.net/catalyser/creating-circle-honour

 

The next step is to let go of control which I will cover next week.

In peace and love always.

Strengthen Your Will

"If you fail to control your mind, you may be sure you will control nothing else. If you must be careless with your possessions, let it be in connection with material things. Your mind is your spiritual estate! Protect and use it with the care to which divine royalty is entitled. You were given a will power for this purpose."
Napoleon Hill

If you have been following my work for a while you will know that one of the keys to Self Mastery is the ability to act with intention and without waiting for evidence to appear before you do so.

Consider the notion of 'being' and the 3 worlds in which we exist - the Past, the Present and the Future.
 

Most of us are living a reactive life, perpetually going around the Past/Present loop. When faced with a situation in the Present we look backwards to see how the new situation relates to our past experiences. We then choose from a range of options based on what has worked in the past - possibly we make small incremental improvements - then we bring that past pattern back into the Present.

Because of the way our brains are hard wired most of us are doing this about 90 -95% of the time. That means only 5 - 10% of the time are we truly creating something new. In my teachings I encourage people to shift this so that you are actively creating what you want about 1/3 of the time and the other 2/3 of the time incorporating the new into self serving habits and behaviours.

When we are going around in the Past/Present loop our actions are based on evidence and rational logical thinking. To step over into the Future/Present loop we need to act with no evidence.

What then holds us in this loop? And how might we bump up our meagre 10% to something more like 30%?

The answer is surprisingly simple - WILL

To create something completely new requires courageous action based on a clear and inspiring Vision for what you want and supported by WILLPOWER. Not others but yours.

So, how can you strengthen your will so that even when things aren't going your way or you are confronted by circumstantial challenges or unsupportive people - you can still find the courage to act?

The key is to exercise your will just as you would exercise your muscles.

You see Self Mastery is the battle of the Self versus the Self - the battle of the Spiritual Warrior.

If you want to create something new and challenging one part of you will be terrified by the prospect of stepping out of your comfort zone (the Past/Present loop and all of your old patterns and habits). Another part of you will be inspired by the prospect of creating your inspiring Vision.

Passion and desire will be challenged by rational, logical evidence based thinking that will seek at all times to draw you back into the old and comfortable ways of doing things.

Will is all about having the courage to hold yourself in the Future/Present loop and acting in alignment with this even whilst that little voice inside your head is telling you why you cannot do it.

Exercising the Will occurs at The Edge.

You can find the Edge when you push yourself out of your comfort zone. In Vipassana meditation retreats you do strong determination sessions where the aim is to remain still for an hour or so. When you do this inevitably you end up with pain arising in your back and legs and it is at this point that your rational mind will tell you and plead with you to MOVE!

Willpower holds you in it and stops you from moving. By exploring the Edge and holding yourself there for as long as possible you strengthen your Will so that when it comes to sticking your neck on the line and doing something that you really want to do you are able to hold yourself there - hold yourself IN ACTION despite the lack of evidence.

"It is because I say it is"

You don't need to go off and do a meditation retreat to exercise your Will. In the last post I wrote about acting with intention and this can be applied here.

Exercise of any form provides an opportunity to work at the Edge. When you go running and find yourself getting tired and want to stop - there is an opportunity to exercise Will. When you do Yoga and find pain whilst holding a pose - there is the opportunity to exercise Will. Breathe and hold - don't REACT - CHOOSE to ACT!

Check out this Will Smith interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWAw7gxfB7Q&feature=related

Whatever you do ACT courageously based on your dreams!

Let us collectively create a more loving and expansive World by rejecting the status quo and actively creating the new.

In peace and love always.

Act With Intention

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii

If you knew that you created your reality through the beliefs that you hold about the World and how it works would you actively work at mastering them?

 

 

"I believe therefore I am"

But how do you work with belief?

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make our World."
Buddha

In the material World in which we live there is cause and effect both in a physical sense and also with regard to working with the energy that surrounds us and envelopes us all the time - the Quantum Field.

Intention + Belief = Creation

We choose to believe - often without much conscious thought and usually because we are swayed to go with the majority. If everyone else believes then it is hard to go against the trend - hence a reality based on consensus rather than choice. The strongest, noisiest, squeakiest wheel wins! Ha!

But what if you decided to choose?

What if you decided to ignore everything and everyone else and instead chose what to believe in?

Intention + Belief = Creation

Choose your intention and then choose to believe.

Going dancing can be going dancing or it can be the opportunity to cathartically release old emotional wounds.

Lighting a fire can be burning wood or choosing to create sacred space.

Having a meeting can be doing business or connecting with another human being for mutual benefit.

Working out at the gym can be lifting weights or practicing to be a spiritual warrior.

If you wait for evidence before you believe then you will limit yourself to what is already seen - to a limited rational view of the World.

We have the ability to imagine for a reason.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand."
Albert Einstein

So, let go of the ties that bind you to the rational World and exercise your imagination.

Choose your intentions and act with intent. Create your World, create our World.

In peace and love always.

Resources for Non-Conformists :)

"Here's to the Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers.
The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.
They push the human race forward. And while some may see them
as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world - are the ones who DO!"
Apple Computers

I love this quote.

It has echos of George Bernard Shaw when he wrote,

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the World;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the World to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

The problem is the when you setp off the train that is driving mainstream society and strike out passionately on your own - you may be left feeling isolated and alone. You may even turn to your old freinds and colleagues for support but since they are well and truly entrenched in the 9 to 5 or more like 8 to 6 merrygoround - you may be a little delusional in expecting them to provide you with support.

You must turn instead to the misfits and non-conformists as your new support network and embrace the wonder of technology to do this - that is - sign up for blogs, newsletters, join in discussions and other inspirational activities. So here's a few starters:-

TUT's Adventurers Club

The Art of Non Conformity

Zen Habits

Linchpin - Seth Godin

The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferriss

Escaping Mediocrity - Sarah Robinson

Oh and don't forget to go out for coffee you never know who you might bump into :)

In peace and love always.

 

 

Pay What You Can in November

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address

To change the World we need to lead by example. Pointing to the problems and highlighting other's inadequacies and fears only feeds them.

If there was a blank canvas and you were God what would you create?

One thing that I have struggled with in my life and I know others have as well is what I call 'transactional living'. The underlying story behind transactional living is that 'I only have worth according to what I can give or exchange with others'.

Transactional living leads you down the rescuers path because you are always looking for someone to help so that you can reinforce your own self worth. Problem is that in identifying people you need to help you often make them a victim "Oh you poor thing" goes the script "Let me help you".

You're a rescuer if
a) you are helping people who haven't asked for your help
b) you are doing something that you really don't want to do, or
c) you are doing more than 50% of the work in a relationship.

Rescuing behaviour masks a deep lack of self worth - the key being that you don't believe you are worthy of love/friendship/affection/money (yes MONEY) - hence you need to do an exchange to get it - hence transactional living.

How do I know about this? Well like I said I'm a past master at it but years of work and diligently stopping myself from stepping in has pretty much got me out of it.

The rescuing behaviour is part of the Karpman Drama triangle (Google it) - the three key roles are rescuer, victim, persecutor. The best bit about it (sic) is that even though we start playing the game by being the rescuer - the longer you play the game the more likely you are to end up playing all three roles. YES - the victim one too...

Boring!

So - the alternative?

THE CIRCLE :)

We are all one.

Ubuntu is the African term

"I am because we are"

Lovely hey?

Which leads me to the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests and a conversation I had with someone where they asked "OK so what's the alternative? Occupy Wall Street then what?"

So, here's my answer - if we all did what we loved and we loved ourselves then we would have no need to live a transactional life and instead would completely and lovingly and unconditionally value ourselves. Which  means not only would we have no need to buy into the fear and greed that drives the financial system and the ridiculous excesses that we have seen over the last few years in particular BUT we would also be really good at saying NO to the ridiculous way that some organisations want to treat their human resources (read 'people' if you have but a sliver of heart fibre left) AND we would trust in the essential good nature of our brothers and sisters (since we are of course all ONE - remember the CIRCLE) AND therefore we would of course bask in LOVE and the essential ABUNDANT nature of our World.

So - sorry about the rave this was supposed to be a short blog...

My point is this - I charge people quite a bit of money to Visioning and Self Mastery work. I do that so people take it seriously and don't just ask me to work with them because they are curious. BUT I know there are people who take the work seriously and don't have the money to pay.

So - let's cut to the chase - if you would like to do some work with me, for the month of November - PAY ME WHAT YOU CAN - first in best dressed (there's about 25 one hour slots left in my schedule)  - email me at acping@acping.net and book a Skype or face to face session (I'm near Byron Bay).

In peace and love always.

The Art of Remembering Who You Really Are

In Greek mythology there are five rivers that flow through the realm of Hades, the God of the dead. Before reincarnation souls are made to drink from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, thus preventing them from remembering their past lives and their current life purpose.

Throughout history many spiritual teachers and philosophers have proposed that the key to finding meaning in life is to 'remember who we really are'. That there is in fact a part of ourselves that is somehow hidden from our conscious mind.

Martin Heidegger, the German ontological philosopher, used Lethe to symbolise the 'concealment of being' that he saw as the major problem in Philosophy. Heidegger believed that everything had essence but that essence was concealed from humans. Our task is to bring forth out of concealment and into truth.
Rudolph Steiner went further when he wrote,

"It is often asked why we do not know anything of our experiences before birth or after death. This is the wrong question. Rather, we should ask how we can attain such knowledge."

Many of us feel like we have 'been here before' and it is quite common for travellers to experience a de ja vu when visiting a place for the first time. Even more of us have felt the need to experiment with plants and other psychoactive substances. Is this yearning rooted in the deep seated knowledge that there is more to life than this physical reality that we can see, touch, smell, taste and hear? Does some part of us desire to reconnect with who we really are and to experience dimensions far richer than the current reality?

If this is truly the case - that we are here with a specific purpose - and that the key task to beginning the journey is to remember - then how would one do it?

STEP 1 - YOU CAN'T 'WORK IT OUT'
The first step in the process is to acknowledge that it isn't something we can 'work out'. In fact our rational mind may well be the thing that keeps us trapped within the limitations of our current reality. This is because of what Heidegger termed the 'concealment of being'.

Modern neuroscience reveals to us that the conscious mind is only able to process about 2000 bits of information per second whereas the total mind - subconscious and unconscious is processing something more like 4 billion.

What this means is that what you perceive reality to be creates your reality. So, the existential philosopher Descartes I think actually had it wrong when he wrote "Cognito Ergo Sum" - "I think, therefore I am". In fact it should be,

 "I believe, therefore I am".

By believing reality to be a certain way your subconscious mind actively filters out anything that doesn't fit so the 2000 bits of information that your conscious mind gets will neatly reflect your fixed view of the World.

This is something that Shamans of various traditions have alluded to - the most well known of which is probably Don Juan, the Mexican Shaman Carlos Castaneda wrote about. In those books Don Juan repeatedly tells Castaneda that,

"Everything in sorcery rests on the manipulation of the assemblage point"

STEP 2 - YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHERE YOU ARE GOING
So, now you have released the belief that you can 'work it out' the next step is to become 'Comfortable in Uncertainty'.

The spiritual teacher Gurdjieff wrote,

"There are things for the understanding of which a different being is necessary."

Meaning - understanding is linked to being so you won't even be able to understand certain phenomena until your being has shifted.

The paradox here is that your being won't shift until you let go of your grip on the rational world and give yourself permission to become comfortable in uncertainty. In other words - the World is a mystery and we cannot hope to possibly comprehend it but we must not stop trying.

There is more to the World than you know so let go.

STEP 3 - ACT COURAGEOUSLY
Intuition is stupid and irrational, it makes us do silly things - BUT - and here's the key - it's tapping into a deeper knowledge than the rational mind and allowing yourself to listen and most importantly to ACT - can connect you with a deeper life path.

Life unfolds as we go along and it is only with the benefit of hindsight that events reveal their true meaning.

If you reflect now on the key events in your life that have led you to where you are now you may be able to identify three or four major turning points in your life.

Now ask yourself - did you plan for these events to occur?

Considering where you are now could you draw a line through time back to these events opening up the possibility that where you are now created those events in the past not vice versa?

If so could you now find the courage to let go of how you think things might turn out and instead embrace the moment and act courageously on your intuition?

If you can do these three things - Let go of the need to 'work it out'; Embrace uncertainty; and, Act courageously - then you are well on the way to remembering who you really are and open to walking a Sacred Path though life.

THE ROLE OF PLANTS
Throughout the ages many different plants have been used around the World to facilitate the process I have outlined above. These have included Marijuana, Peyote, San Pedro, Ayahuasca, and Fly-Agaric mushrooms - to name a few.

In my own journey I have spent quite a bit of time in Africa working with Sangomas, the traditional tribal healers or Shamans. Sangomas work quite a lot with medicinal plants which they call Mutis and it is the spirit of the plant that they focus on rather than the chemical substances.

To a Sangoma, the veil between this World and other realities is very thin. Plants open doors to other realities, they can drive away evil spirits, provide psychic and physical protection and also be the carriers of good or bad intentions.

The context of this article is The Art of Remembering Who You Really Are - so let's focus on that.
Sangomas believe that our ancestors come to us in our dreams to guide us in this life and our primary guide is usually our Grandfather. If you are lost in life, or are seeking guidance in some form, the first step is to work to open up the dreaming function so you can 'hear' clearly.

A mixture called 'Ubulawu' or White Light is used to do this. The primary ingredient is Silene Capensis and the effect is a dreamy state where the veil between the dream states and reality does indeed become thin.

I have experienced Ubulawu and other plant substances many times in different contexts and have a few points that I would like to share.

1.    HONOUR THE PLANT
Plants have been here for much longer than we have. Their spirits are collective in that when you work with a plant you work with the spirit of all of the plants of that type.

When you choose to work with plants you are not just working with a chemical substance you are working with spirit. Any work done should therefore be done in ceremony where sacred space has been created and the plant has been honoured.

Honour in this sense begins with how the plant is grown and cared for and extends right through to how it is harvested and prepared. Honour the plant and it will honour you.

Above all - ask.

Plants like to help but they need to be asked.

2.    INTENTION
Referring back to the process above for remembering who you really are, you will note that 'you can't work it out'. What you can do though is to set clear intention and this will act as a guide on the path that you go down.

If your intention is to 'experiment' then guess what? That's what you'll get.

If your intention is to work with the spirit of the plant to help you connect with who you really are then you will have a very different experience. You can't understand a different reality with your present state of being so letting go is key and this is where the process of honour and the creation of sacred space will allow this.

To powerfully work with intention also means to let go of your expectations of what you will get. I have worked with many people who were surprised by what resulted but elated by how their intentions were delivered to them.

3.    INTEGRATION
If you have the nerve to ask then have the courage to act!

Working with plants can reveal many things to us and many alternate dimensions. The key though is that we have chosen to incarnate into this reality because here we have the opportunity to influence the physical World through the actions that we take.

If you choose to seek a Sacred Path in life then you must integrate the knowledge into this realm through taking courageous action.

In Africa the Sangomas believe that if you do not follow the advice of your ancestors then they will slowly withdraw their support from you until this life becomes so painful and desperate that you will again seek their guidance. Alternatively they may give you a 'knock on the head' to get your attention.

Either way it is a warning to be wary because to walk a Warrior's path requires spiritual courage.

On that note I will leave you with a quote from Gurdjieff,

"Knowledge by itself does not give understanding...
Understanding depends on the relation to being."

In peace and love always.

(this article appears in the Journal for the 2011 Entheogenesis Australis Conference)

Bless You Mother Earth

"Aho Mitakuye Oyasin" (We are all related)

The saying of the prayer signalled the end of the second round of the Sweat Lodge and before the water pourer had finished asking "Does anyone wish to go outside" I had begun crawling towards the door.

My head was spinning, my only thought, the cool night air that lay outside. Crawling just far enough to get out of the way of the door I collapsed forwards to rest my head on the cool Earth.

"Bless you Mother Earth" I whispered as I breathed in and felt the heat begin to leave my body.

Gradually my heart slowed and the pounding in my temples resided.

I was there as support for the men who had chosen to do a Vision Quest. We had arrived at the plateau late in the afternoon and had spent the time before dark carefully laying the blankets over the Sweat Lodge and stoking the fire so the rocks within would be red hot.

As the sun had gone down we had stripped off, been smudged with white sage, and had entered the lodge.

The Sweat Lodge is a purification ceremony, used in this instance to prepare the people for their Vision Quest which would begin at dawn the next morning. The four rounds follow the four directions of the Medicine Wheel and at the start of each round more hot rocks (representing our Grandfathers) are brought into the Lodge.

"Time to come back in guys", the water pourer called.

Taking a few last deep breaths and a gulp of water I crawled back to the door, bowed down to honour the Earth again and said the prayer,
 "Aho Mitakuye Oyasin"
"Welcome brother" was the response.

I'd been ok in the first round, content to sit in the North. But when that round had ended the person sitting in the West, the hottest part of the lodge because it is opposite the door, had asked to move and I had been asked to take his place.

Now as the third round began I steeled myself for the heat once again.

I've sat in many Lodges over the years but no two are the same. Whatever is going on for you at the time dictates how easy or hard the Lodge will be.

I see it as exploring the edge.

For only so long can you sit there in a hot dark Lodge and maintain control with your rational mind. Eventually you must submit to the process and along the journey you feel the edge of your power. As the temperature builds one part screams "Get me out of here NOW!"

It is then that you feel the panic and fear rising. It is then that you see your weakness and have an opportunity to tap into your strength.

I relate it to Vipassana meditation and the strong determination sessions that one must do in the course of a 10 day retreat. In those sessions the pain arises in the body and the aim is not to react to it but rather to feel it and have equanimity towards it thus allowing the samsaric loops to unwind.

Sweat Lodge is the same. How strong is your will at the edge?

Leaving is not an option if only for the fact that a friend has brought his 7 year old son along and after two rounds he has declared that Sweat Lodge is "Fun".

I hold my resolve and find my voice channelling the energy up and out of me. After the fourth round we finish the Lodge, cool off and share a meal. It has been intense but is only the beginning of the journey.

At 5am after barely 3 hours sleep we arise in the darkness so those doing Vision can go out to their spot at sunrise where they will remain without food or water for 24 hours.

The day passes slowly. There is no mobile reception, TV or books. The sacred fire must be tended to as it will burn for the entire three day ceremony.

I'm tempted to play games on my iPhone but spend almost two hours instead communing with a friendly Kookaburra that lets me get to within almost an arm's reach. There is only myself and the leader left at camp and when we eat, we eat for those who are sitting Vision. Our role is to hold space for them.

That night we take turns to get up and feed the fire. Sleep is deep and my dreams are profound although memory of them eludes me. At 4.30am we arise to get the fire and the stones ready for the 'dust off' Sweat Lodge those doing Vision will come back to at sunrise.

The sheer beauty of the rising sun absorbs my consciousness. How could anyone treat our World with disrespect? Have we forgotten where we came from and what holds us?

 

Just after 6am the drum is played to call the Vision Questers back.

They stride back into camp, disrobe, have a few mouthfuls of water and are smudged with sage once again so they can enter Lodge.

It is hot but this time I am at least by the door as my role is to place the Grandfathers (stones) in the central pit.

Soon I feel myself again at the edge as the Vision Questers relate their experiences.

The simple act of sitting on the Earth for 24 hours has been profound. A sense of awe surrounds them.

How have so many of us lost this connection?

A sharing circle and sacred pipe ceremony follows Lodge and then the prayers ties are burnt and the circle is closed.

Three days has seemed like many more. I need time to process what I have experienced. I honour those who had the courage to sit for their Vision Quest. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I am grateful to the leader who held the ceremony and to the owner of the land.

Above all, I bless you Mother Earth.

In peace and love always.

If You Don't Trust Yourself Why Should Anyone Else?

"I feel there are two people inside me - me and my intuition. If I go against her,
she'll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely."
Kim Basinger

I've got laryngitis (did you know how to spell that? I didn't – where would we be without spell checkers? Soon they'll be totally automatic and the days of spelling tests completely obsolete..) but I digress...

The thing about not being able to speak is you get to listen – really listen – and watch. It's made me reflect on a workshop on leadership I ran recently where we were talking about managing conflict and I was asked what's the key skill in managing conflict in a group or relationship.

Bet you can guess the answer?

If you said listening you'd be half right because although you can do all the communication courses in the world and get really good at asking specific questions that supposedly tell you EXACTLY what someone is thinking it won't tell you what your intuition might be screaming at you.

A guy in the workshop called it his 'shit-ometer' – now maybe that's not a very sophisticated name but I'm sure you get the point. Within seconds of walking into a room you have scanned every person in the room for where they are 'at' and determined what your 'shit-ometer' reading is.

The real skill – and the one that separates the really good leaders and movers and shakers from everyone else is – and then what do you DO about it?

Personal relationships are even more tricky – you come home – walk in the front door take one look at your partner and ding ding – in some deep dark recess of your brain a little alarm bell goes off. Mostly we are trained to ignore these alarms but how much more in flow would life be if we LISTENED and then – yes had the COURAGE – to ACT!

But we doubt ourselves.
"You ok honey?"
"Yep"
"Ok"
And off we go to read a book, play with the kids, water the garden, walk the dog.

Later we pretend to be surprised when we are 'blindsided' by an emotional partner who maybe drops the bombshell that we 'never listen'. To which the appropriate response is
"Huh?"

At work we are 'blindsided' by an emotional staff member who's complained to HR that we "Never listen and don't seem to care"...

But can you really pretend in retrospect that you didn't know?

Trust yourself – believe in yourself – LISTEN to yourself.

Because YOU KNOW and if you don't trust yourself why should anyone else?

Self Mastery is about BELIEVEing in yourself so you don't constantly second guess the intuitive messages you are getting. Being Open in your HEART so you are in tune with what you are feeling. Being PRESENT and then ACTING courageously having released the outcome with FAITH and embraced LOVE.

If you want to check in with where you are at with your own Self Mastery do a quick self assessment against the 8 Principles

Self Belief
Open Heart
Being Present
Following Passion
Acting Courageously
Being Grateful
Having Faith
Embracing Love

Simply consider the principle and then rate yourself out of 10.

You will quickly see which areas you are weak in and then you can go to the Online Program find the Principle that needs some work and then do the Core Practice until your self assessment comes up above 8.

Self Assessment works because 'You are what you Beleive' - if you tell a crappy story about yourself then guess what? You definitely won't believe you DESERVE love and abundance in your life. Imagine how life changes if you consistently rate yourself over 8 in each of the Self Mastery Principles?  This is my wish for you.

In peace and love always.

There Is No I, There Is No Me, There Is No My

"Look into the World and you will see yourself staring back at you."

 

I guess you might have figured by now that the last few posts have had a common theme running through them?

Years ago when I learnt to do metta meditation (loving kindness meditation), the mantra that stuck in my head was 'There is no I, there is no me, there is no my'.

To do metta the aim is to release all attachment to separation and simply to project love out into the World. When I teach people how to do metta I get them to connect with their bodies, focus on their chakras one by one, then see themselves in a cocoon of unconditional loving blue light. You can try it yourself, and if you prefer a quantum physics perspective then acknowledge that a quantum field links us all together so somewhere in there you can dictate what your 'space' is.

My 'space' is an egg shaped cocoon of energy that encompasses my body and extends about an arm's length in every direction.

Once you have connected with your 'space' fill it up with blue light - unconditionally loving energy. Feel and visualise the blue light purging all other dark energies and blocks out of your space.

When you have your space under control then you can move outwards. Always good to do this as I really believe we should sort our own shit out first before we start projecting our issues onto everyone else. A torch or car headlight that has a bit of poo on it projects a shadow onto what it is pointed at...

Anyway, radiate the blue light out and fill up the room you are in. Sweep down and into the corners especially pushing the dark energy out like an energetic broom. When you can feel and visualise the whole room full of radiant blue loving light then move out to the rest of the house. Go room to room just like you would if you were cleaning. Push all the dark crap out an open window or door. Then move outside to your garden and the borders of your property. When you have done that sit for a bit holding loving space for all of the plants and giving thanks for all that you have.

And so now you are ready to let go of your attachment to you. Imagine floating up now and then when you are above your house radiate your blue light energy out in every direction - repeating in your mind 'There is no I, there is no me, there is no my. May all beings experience true love and compassion'.

See your radiant blue light enveloping the globe. Flowing down and across mountains, into the most impoverished areas of the World, into the hearts of those experiencing conflict, into the lives of those who are at War. 'There is no I, there is no me, there is no my. There is only us. May all beings experience true love and compassion.'

Become aware now that as you are doing this there are a whole lot of other people out there all around the World doing metta meditation at EXACTLY the same time as you!

Link your loving energy to theirs. See the unconditional love criss crossing the globe raising the loving vibration of the planet.

Everything is you and you are everything so CHOOSE. HOW do you want it to be?

I want love to be all powerful! I choose to hold that space and align with that vibration.

Sit in that space for as long as you can then choose to leave your loving blue light energy enveloping the planet and slowly bring your own personal energy back towards you. Back over the oceans, over the mountains and back to your own space. Settle back into your energetic sphere and see it filled with pure white light.

Choose now to remember that you are not separate, you are not alone.

Give yourself permission to be exactly who you are. To love yourself for exactly who you are. Choose to love others for exactly who they are. Set your intention to focus on everything that is right with the World.

In peace and love always.